Sunday, December 6, 2009

Burst Media Bubbles: Role models or Eye candy?

Much as with television, video games can confine women in many ways as well. One of the most noticeable elements of many video games is not really so much stereotypes about women’s roles, but the way they are presented as sex objects. The sensuous body of Lara Croft, the female protagonist, can be viewed nude on many websites. Even though she is not a real woman, she is idolized and made into an unrealistic picture of how perfect she can be. For teenage boys, she represents the perfect woman who is impossibly beautiful. And for the teenage girls, she is the role model with a perfect body that any normal woman would hope for. Thus boys and girls are led to idolizing a figment of imagination, thus making the normal woman look dull and lifeless in comparison. Further, violence and sexiness was paired more often with females in video games than violence and muscular physiques for male characters.

Video games have come a long way in terms of participation of women in the makings of a game, but it still has a lot to learn on being sensitive towards its portrayal of women.